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Corporate Citizenship: Influencing Positive, Meaningful Change
Oracle as a corporation, and Oracle employees as individuals, are actively working to improve the quality of life for people in the communities in which we live. In helping to solve problems, rather than manage their consequences, we are committed to influencing positive, meaningful change worldwide.
Oracle's corporate priorities are as follows:
- Advance education
- Protect the environment
- Enrich the community
Across Europe, we support these objectives by engaging in exciting projects to support local organisations and help to develop communities.
Our work is driven by our desire to embrace our responsibilities and make an explicit commitment to society (download our report, 'Oracle's Commitment') and by our talented and dedicated employees who give up their time to improve the lives of those less fortunate than themselves.
Our current initiatives focus on creating opportunities for learning and development; protecting and enhancing the environment, and using our technologies and resources to enrich communities. In 2005, more than 2,000 employees from 26 countries participated in 95 non-political, non-religious, not-for-profit community projects. These projects included renovating homeless shelters; supporting medical research into cancer and neuroscience; building playgrounds and activity areas for disadvantaged children; protecting waterways, land, trees, and endangered animals; cleaning up polluted coastlines and providing technology resources such as
www.think.com and
www.thinkquest.org to primary and secondary schools.
The full scope of Corporate Citizenship activities undertaken in Europe by Oracle and its employees extends far and wide, but our internal CSR structure focuses primarily on those areas where we feel we can make the most difference to European society, which are:
Education - We aim to raise our employees' awareness of the role that Oracle plays in advancing education worldwide, and of the part they can play in promoting and implementing Oracle's educational initiatives. We continue to expand and refine the educational tools (e.g. Think.com) and programmes (e.g. ThinkQuest) that Oracle has developed and makes freely available to the communities we operate in.
Discrimination - Oracle promotes a professional environment in which all employees recognise the importance and impact of investing in diversity. We aim to create an environment of understanding, in which the numerous benefits of a diverse workforce, not only limited to creativity and originality of ideas, are the key to achieving success.
Environment - We actively develop, promote and implement practices and ways of working that are environment-friendly, both in the office and while travelling. All employees pledge to support corporate policy regarding waste management and the conservation of the environment.
Ethics & values - All Oracle employees are encouraged to recognise and respect the importance of adhering to high ethical standards and to a set of core values and behaviours.
Enriching the community - Oracle actively supports the communities in which it operates, through employee engagement in community projects as well as sponsorship and charitable giving.
Human rights - We continually seek to define how our areas of responsibility comply with our core human values and how we work within a framework of moral obligation.
Customers - Oracle actively works with its customers to identify their expectations from us in terms of corporate citizenship, and to learn from their own CSR approaches and practices.
Suppliers - We similarly work with our suppliers to formulate and communicate our expectations of them in CSR terms, and to identify what we can learn from their own CSR practices.
Promotion & Communication - In line with its corporate guidelines, Oracle continuously communicates the company's CSR activities, and those undertaken by its employees and related organisations, both internally and externally.
In the coming months and years we will continue to embrace and extend these responsibilities, not only by supporting the actions of individuals but also by continuing to implement and adhere to the responsible business practices and ethical company values that our customers, suppliers, employees and other stakeholders demand and recognise.
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